Quran

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT QURAN - PAGE 2

Re the Dec. 7 letter, "Quran passages make it unsuitable": I would like to draw the letter writer's attention to the following verses from Bible: Timothy 2:9-14 NRSV: The Apostle Paul says all women have inferior judgment to men. Mark 7:25 to 27 NRSV: Jesus calls a begging woman a dog. Numbers 31:14-18 NRSV: Moses is angry because not all of the women are killed in a raid. No offense intended. I am sure there is clarification for all these. As a Muslim, I believe in Prophet Moses and Jesus and revere them as much as I admire Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon all of them)

Mr. Keith Ellison, Rep.-elect from Minnesota, desires to be sworn into office with his hand on the Quran. The very self-same Quran that contains the following violent and vitriolic language: Section 48.13 (The Victory): "And whoever does not believe in Allah and his Apostle, then surely we have prepared burning fire for the unbelievers." Section 48.

Re the Sept. 16 column, "Radicals are not worthy of Muslim faith," which is a wonderful restatement of American principals from someone at the Muslim Council of America: 9-11 was a clarion call that affected me deeply. What was there in Islam that could have caused the radicalization of Muslims to perform such a heinous act? After 9-11, I read a good deal of the Quran, on a Muslim Web site, and entered into an online chat with a American convert to Islam, with regard to ecumenism. In our online chat, we exchanged views in a civil manner and I thought we were basically on the same page, until the last message I received, which was a diatribe against the West.

I won't be burning my copy of the Quran today, nor any other day. I'm not a Muslim. I'm a Catholic. But I have a copy of the Quran, and it's a beautiful one at that. It was given to me as a gift years ago by Altaf Ali, the head of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. Not because he was trying to convert me, please, but as a gesture of interfaith tolerance, understanding and knowledge. And looking back now, I am not only grateful for his generosity, but respect and admire his efforts to reach out and build bridges.

Don't expect remorse from Florida pastor Terry Jones. When you are filled with hate, remorse doesn't enter the picture. Jones simply wants publicity for his venom, and he's gotten plenty of it the past few days after the Gainesville minister's Quran burning gave an Afghan mob a reason to engage in deadly violence that left seven UN workers dead and instigated even more rioting and violence the next day. True, it doesn't take much to spark...

It is well known and understood that America was founded upon Judeo-Christian values as expressed in the Bible. That is why newly elected officials in this country swear allegiance to our Constitution with their hand on a Bible. Now along comes newly elected Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim from Minnesota, who, in the past has been connected with anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Keith Ellison wants to be sworn into office in January with his hand on the Quran.

Born into a devout Muslim family in west Africa, Imam Momodou Ceesay studied Arabic and the Quran at an early age. He learned quickly under the tutelage of a Gambian sheik and graduated from Al Azhar in Egypt, considered the top university in the world for Islamic studies. But it concerned him that millions of African Muslims were unable to understand the Quran because it was written in Arabic, a language foreign to many of them. So Ceesay, now a Southfield, Mich., resident, undertook what is believed to be the first complete translation of Islam's holy book into Mandinka, a west African language.

As the war in Afghanistan storms toward Ramadan, many Americans are taking their first serious look at a holy month for the world's 1.2 billion Muslims. Ramadan is a time of devotion, daytime fasting and reading the holy book known as the Quran. The month is expected to start Saturday; but since it depends on the first sighting of the new moon, the starting time could come a day sooner. It was during Ramadan, Muslims believe, that God dictated the Quran to the prophet Muhammad through the archangel Gabriel.

Already denied permission to burn a Quran in downtown Boca Raton , a local man now wants approval to shred the Muslim holy book on Memorial Day. Mark Rowley, 52, needs a city permit to stage the shredding event in Sanborn Park. He applied to burn a Quran in April, but the city denied him, citing a ban on fires in the park. Rowley's application to stage an event to shred a Quran is under review, Assistant City Manager Mike Woika said. Earlier this year, Terry Jones, a Gainesville pastor, drew international condemnation and sparked violence in the Middle East when he burned a Quran at his church.